Youth work

President Obama plans a White House "Forum on Jobs" next month, and here's an item that ought to be on the agenda: summer jobs for young people.

Teenage unemployment is running at about 25 percent nationwide, against the background of the worst overall job losses since 1983. With adults grasping at every opportunity to work, the outlook for younger job seekers looks especially bleak.

The federal government has bailed out bankers and brokers, to the tune of billions of dollars. A fraction of that sum could go a long way next summer toward helping young people get a taste of productive work - and a paycheck.

It's not as if there's nothing to do. Across America, parks and public facilities have been neglected for years. North Carolinians need look no farther than the Blue Ridge Parkway for an example. The Civilian Conservation Corps worked wonders in the Great Depression, and something similar, with a summer-jobs orientation, would help in the Great Recession.